Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Papi stays inside

For the second straight day, David Ortiz did not participate in outdoor drills with his teammates. Is it Papi’s knee that was surgically repaired after the 2007 season? Is it that left wrist that kept him out for seven weeks last year?

Relax, you Red Sox Nationers. It’s nothing of that sort. Ortiz merely had a bit of a sore shoulder and will be back out there for a full day of drills on Saturday.

“He’s a little better,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona.
“Actually, a lot better. We held him back one more day. I think he probably just overdid
it the other day a little bit. He’s not a guy that’s probably done a ton of
throwing coming into camp. We go out there and he does the groundballs with
everybody and then he went home and fell asleep on it but I think tomorrow he’ll
be fine. It’s his left shoulder. It’s sore. It’s nothing that anybody has had
any concerns about.”

To give you an idea of how slow camp has been the last few days, Ortiz actually drew a crowd at his locker to talk about the nagging shoulder. He completely downplayed it, saying that he was fine and that he expects to be back on the field tomorrow.

“It’s just the kind of thing that happens and you have to do what you have to do, you know?” Ortiz said.

After the workout, Ortiz, still in workout shorts and a Red Sox sweatshirt, could be seen sitting in the drivers seat of his red ferrari. Nice ride!

In other news, Josh Beckett threw his first live BP of the spring and looked pretty impressive in doing so.

“Thought Beckett
did well,” Francona said. “[He] kept the ball down and stayed in his delivery.”

Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield and Justin Masterson were some of the other significant pitchers to face hitters.

Stay tuned Saturday, as Francona will unveil his early Grapefruit League pitching rotation at that time. I know, it doesn’t quite compare to the Kevin Garnett knee injury in terms of news value, but interesting to pent-up Sox fans nonetheless.

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7 Comments

Big news…big news…Francona too unveil his Grapefruit rotation, wow!

Ortiz slept on his shoulder wrong. These athletes crack me up. A new pillow and then all of a sudden they have a stiff neck.

Ian…

Will you be there tomm.? I will be there. I will keep an eye out for you. Not sure if I’ll be able too get close too ya and say hello…All that security you have around you. Is there a worse neighborhood than that area where the Sox train? LOL!!

I’m trying not to panic (okay – I did panic on my blog today!) – but he “slept wrong” on it and he’s out for two days?? Is it just me (probably!) or does something seem a little off here? I’m looking forward to having the Red Sox featured tonight on MLB’s 30 Clubs/30 Days series. But don’ they usually save the best for the last??

We still have some openings for the Sox and Pinstripes fantasy baseball league. So far, Kal and Ellen from this site have signed up. Send me an e-mail if you’d like to participate, and I’ll send you an invitation through Yahoo Sports. The league is free.

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